Intro (English) to the Resolutions of Cape of Good Hope / History of the Cape of Good Hope of the Council of Policy of Cape of Good Hope History of the Cape of Good Hope A Portuguese discovers the sea route from Europe to India In August 1486 the Portuguese navigator, Bartholomeu Dias, set sail from the Tagus River at Lisbon with his fleet of two small vessels and a cargo ship. The objective of his journey was to sail round the southern point of Africa in order find a seaway and a trade route to India . At Angra Pequena (now Lüderitzbucht , Namibia ) he erected a cross. Then a tremendous storm forced his ships off course and he and his crew did not reach land until they entered the bay, which is known today as Mossel Bay . It was then that Dias realised that they had already passed the tip of Africa and had actually discovered the sea route to the East. The indigenous Khoi pastoralists fled when they saw the ships entering the bay. On the island of St. Croix near Algoa Bay he also erected a cross and probably kept on sailing until they reached the Fish River in the present Eastern Cape .

There the small fleet had to turn back because of insufficient supplies on board. On his return voyage Dias, elated by the realisation of having discovered the sea route to India , changed the name Cabo Tormentoso ‘cape of storms’ to Cabo da boa Esperanza ‘cape of good hope’. Portugal continued the expansion of its Indian empire and Portuguese fleets to the East regularly passed the Cape . In 1498 Vasco da Gama named the above-mentioned bay where Dias landed Aguada de Sâo Bras ‘fountain-head of St. Blaize’. On his voyage to India (1501-1502) Joâo de Nova and his fleet also visited the bay and in his turn he named it Golfo dos Vaqueiros ‘bay of herdsmen’. He also built a small chapel, the first Christian structure erected in South Africa . De Nova continued his journey and reached Rio de la Goa ‘river of the lake’, the place that was named in 1544 by Lourenço Marques after himself.

In 1503 one of the three squadrons belonging to this fleet was under the command of Antonio de Saldanha who made a navigational error and eventually reached the bay now known as Table Bay . In March 1510 the Portuguese viceroy Francisco d’ Almeida who had just established Portuguese authority in the Indian Ocean, and a number of his high-ranking officers were killed in Table Bay during a skirmish with a group of Khoi. The inhospitable coastline of Southern Africa was the most important reason why the Portuguese rulers were not interested in occupying this country. Age of Exploration | European Navigators Explore the New World Age of Exploration By the end of the 15th century many things were changing in Europe. The population started to grow more quickly and a new class of merchants emerged. They wanted to buy and sell expensive and valuable products from Asia—like gold, jewels and silk. In those days, people had no refrigerators to preserve their food. They dried meat and often used salt to make it last longer. To make food taste better they used spices , like pepper or cinnamon. For centuries Europeans brought these goods on a land route from Asia over thousands of dangerous kilometres .

In the 15th century the overland routes were being controlled by the Turkish Empire, which made it even more difficult for European merchants to pass through. As a result, some European countries, like Spain and Portugal, decided to find out if there was a sea route to India . With the help of new kinds of ships that could sail faster and instruments , like the quadrant, they started the Age of Exploration. Portuguese exploration At the end of the 15th century the Portuguese started to explore the west coast of Africa . They set up trading posts and collected gold and silver. They were convinced that by sailing around the coast of Africa they would find a route to India. In 1487 , the Portuguese explorer Bartholomeu Dias sailed around the southern part of the continent and got as far as the east coast of Africa, but a storm made him turn back. On his return voyage, he saw a piece of land that stretched out into the sea. The Portuguese named it the Cape of Good Hope because they were hopeful of finding a passageway to India. In 1497 Vasco Da Gama set out from Lisbon, sailed around the Cape of Good Hope and into the Indian Ocean.

He reached the west coast of India in May 1498. He took some spices and gold back with him to prove that he had reached India. Christopher Columbus Christopher Columbus was probably the most famous explorer of the era. He achieved fame by sailing west in search of a sea route to India. Instead of reaching India he discovered that there was an unknown mass of land in between, land that the Europeans knew nothing of. Columbus was born in Genoa, Italy in 1451 and during his early years his father took him on various sailing trips and wanted to make a merchant out of him. Like many navigators of that time, Columbus also wanted to sail to India and the Far East. He thought that if he sailed west he would also reach the Spice Islands of Asia and India. When he went to the king of Portugal to present his plan, but it was rejected. Queen Isabella of Spain admired young and brave men like Columbus and so she gave him three ships—the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria—and a crew of 90 men. Columbus left Spain on August 3, 1492.

After two months of sailing westward, he landed on an island of the Bahamas, San Salvador, on October 12, 1492. Because he thought he had reached the islands near India he called the natives Indians . All together, Columbus made four voyages to the New World between 1492 and 1504. He explored the coasts of Cuba, Jamaica , Hispaniola, and Puerto Rico. On his last two voyages, Columbus reached the mainland of Central and South America and travelled as far south as the mouth of the Orinoco River. After he came home from his fourth voyage, Christopher Columbus fell ill and died in 1506. Other Spanish Explorers During the early 1500s Spanish explorers travelled across most of Central and South America. They founded colonies and brought settlers to the New World. They also made the native Indians work for them. The Spaniards brought new products to the Americas ,like wheat, horses, cattle and sheep. In exchange , they grew plants that were not known in Europe, like corn and potatoes and brought them back to the Old Continent.

In 1513 the Spanish explorer Vasco de Balboa landed in Panama, the part of Central America that is very narrow. With his men, he fought his way through 50 miles of jungle and was surprised to see a new sea , the Pacific Ocean. One of the most important Spanish conquistadors was Hernando Cortes. He conquered the Aztec empire in 1521. In 1532 and 1533 Francisco Pizarro conquered the Incas. These natives ruled an empire that expanded from Columbia to the northern parts of Argentina. The Incas had great riches, vast amounts of gold and silver. When the Spanish got there they took all of it away from the Incas. French and English explorers The French and the English concentrated their journeys on the northern part of the continent, because they thought that there also had to be a north-western route to India. In 1497, John Cabot, an Italian who sailed for England, landed on the east coast of Canada. In 1534 Jacques Cartier sailed down the St. Lawrence River and reached the Great Lakes . He claimed this territory for the king of France.

During the 1600s the French and English began to set up colonies . The French concentrated on the St .Lawrence valley and the Great Lakes and founded towns like Montreal, or Detroit. At the end of the century Louis Joliet and Jacques Marquette sailed down the Mississippi River. The land near the Gulf of Mexico was called Louisiana, in honour of the French king. Settlements like St. Louis or New Orleans show French origin. The first permanent settlement in North America was founded at Jamestown , Virginia in 1607. In 1610 Henry Hudson sailed around north-eastern Canada and discovered a huge body of water which he thought was the Pacific Ocean. Today it is known as Hudson Bay . Amerigo Vespucci Amerigo Vespucci was an Italian-born explorer who explored the mainland of America at the end of the 15th century. A German mapmaker believed that Vespucci was the first to reach the New World ,so he suggested naming the new land America. Although Vespucci was probably not one of the greatest explorers of the time, he was the first navigator who explored South America.

Magellan sails around the world In 1519 the Portuguese sailor Ferdinand Magellan set out to find India by sailing around South America. He sailed for Spain because the Portuguese didn’t give him any money for this expedition. Magellan had 5 ships and a crew of 240. When he reached the southern tip of South America, he got into bad, stormy weather . Two of his ships were badly damaged and couldn’t continue the journey. With three ships he sailed through a strait, that later was named after him , the Strait of Magellan. When he reached the Pacific Ocean, he sailed for there months without any sight of land. Finally , in April of 1521 he landed on the Philippine Islands. Magellan got into a fight with native islanders and was killed there. Only one ship could continue the voyage. It crossed the Indian Ocean and sailed around the Cape of Good Hope. With only twenty people on board it reached Spain three years after it had set out. Magellan's journey around the world HISTORY OF PORTUGAL Enjoy the Famous Daily Navigation and exploration: 1415-1460 Europe's exploration of the world begins in the 15th century, pioneered by Portugal.

The Portuguese sailors are under the control of Henry, one of the sons of John I . Although no seaman himself, his energy and vision earns him the name by which history knows him - Prince Henry the Navigator. In 1415 the Portuguese sail a fleet of some 200 ships from Lisbon to attack the Muslims on the African coast. They successfully take the strategic promontory of Ceuta, on the southern side of the Straits of Gibraltar. The 21-year-old Henry is one of the first to fight his way into the city. He is subsequently given responsibility for the Portuguese garrison there. The capture of Ceuta seems to be the event which fires Henry's enthusiasm for exploration round Africa's coasts. Later in his life he builds himself a villa at Sagres, in the extreme southwest of Portugal, where he establishes a laboratory of seafaring. He gathers there a team of skilled navigators, geographers and mapmakers. His ships sail from the Portuguese harbour of Lagos, a few miles to the east. The main purpose of Prince Henry's efforts will be expeditions pressing ever further south round Africa. But his attention is first drawn to island groups in the Atlantic - Madeira and the Azores.

Madeira features on an Italian portolan chart of 1351 but an accidental sighting by a Portuguese navigator, blown off course in 1418, is regarded at the time as a discovery. Returning in 1420, the navigator (João Gonçalves Zarco) finds the island uninhabited and lush. Prince Henry immediately despatches colonists both for Madeira and its smaller companion, Porto Santo. The forests are slashed and burned. Rich land is brought into cultivation, mainly for sugar cane and vineyards. The productivity of the islands soon comes to depend on another aspect of Portugal's new seafaring activities - the African slave trade , which results from Prince Henry's later expeditions. A group of islands much further into the ocean is sighted by a Portuguese ship in 1427. Prince Henry sends settlers to the Azores from 1432. The practical use of these islands is not yet obvious. But with the European discovery of America in 1492, and of the sea route round Africa to India in 1498, the Azores become an invaluable landfall almost in the middle of the north Atlantic.

They are particularly well placed, in later centuries, for ships on the long curving ocean route between Europe and the Cape of Good Hope . As yet these future advantages are unknown to Henry the Navigator, whose ambitions now centre on Africa. Down the African coast: 1434-1460 Many and varied motives lie behind Prince Henry 's African expeditions. In part they are pure voyages of discovery, driven by a longing to know what new places, people, animals or plants may lie beyond the next forbidding headland. Partly they are a straightforward quest for Africa's gold. Then there is the hope of colonizing new lands for Portugal. There is the desire to spread Christianity and frustrate Islam. There is even the fanciful dream of coming across a fabulous Christian ruler, Prester John . But the overriding purpose is to discover a sea route round Africa to the east, with its rich promise of trade in valuable spices. Ocean-going ships are improving at this period (the era of the caravel ), but the sheer difficulty faced by the sailors is well suggested by the long struggle to get round Cape Bojador - a promontory only about 150 miles south of the Canaries.

Prince Henry sends out fourteen expeditions to attempt this feat before at last one is successful, in 1434. In the 1440s progress is quicker. Caravels sail round Cape Verde in 1444 and Cape Roxo in 1446, bringing them to the northern part of what is later Portuguese Guinea . By the time of Prince Henry's death, in 1460, navigators have explored as far south as Sierra Leone. They have also discovered the uninhabited Cape Verde islands . Portuguese settlers move into the Cape Verde islands in about 1460. In 1466 they are given an economic advantage which guarantees their prosperity. They are granted a monopoly of a new slave trade. On the coast of Guinea the Portuguese are now setting up trading stations to buy captive Africans. Some of these slaves are used to work the settlers' estates in the Cape Verde islands. Others are sent north for sale in Madeira, or in Portugal and Spain - where Seville now becomes an important market.

Africans have been imported by this sea route into Europe since at least 1444, when one of Henry the Navigator's expeditions returns with slaves exchanged for Moorish prisoners. Dias and the Cape of Good Hope: 1487-1488 The two most significant Portuguese voyages of exploration take place a generation after the death of Henry the Navigator . In the first, in 1487-8, Bartolomeu Dias proves that there is a sea route round the southern tip of Africa. In the second, ten years later, Vasco da Gama demonstrates that this route leads to India. Dias is already a veteran navigator along the coast of northwest Africa when he sets off from Lisbon, in August 1487, with two caravels and a storeship. Two or three months later he passes Cape Cross - reached in the previous year by Diogo Cam, and as yet the furthest point south of any Portuguese expedition. Dias abandons his depleted store ship somewhere south of Cape Cross. At Angra Pequena he pauses to erect a stone pillar, declaring that the king of Portugal is the overlord of this region.

These pillars, and this claim, have by now become the standard practice of the Portuguese expeditions whenever new territory is reached. Diogo Cam, the immediate predecessor of Dias, has erected four - at the mouth of the Congo, at Cape Santa Maria, at Cape Negro and Cape Cross. From Angra Pequena the two caravels of Dias sail due south. They see no land for thirteen days. Dias turns northeast. He makes landfall at Mossel Bay in February 1488. The coastline here runs east and west. Dias, whose crew are becoming restless, continues to the east. At Cape Padrone, where he sets up a second pillar, his officers insist that they have achieved enough. They should set sail for Portugal. He persuades them to continue a little further until the northeast trend of the coastline becomes unmistakable. This seems indeed to be the case by the time they have reached the Great Fish river. The two ships turn home. On the way back Dias erects a third stone pillar at the Cape of Good Hope - a magnificent acquisition for the king of Portugal, previously missed because of the long seaward loop on the journey out. Dias and his ships reach Lisbon in December 1488.

They have been away for sixteen months. They have sailed round more than 1200 miles of previously undiscovered coastline. They have not reached India, but their rounding of the Cape is considered proof that this longer journey is possible. When the next major attempt is planned, Dias is put in charge of building the two main caravels. But the command of the expedition is given to a younger man, Vasco da Gama . The ships leave Lisbon in 1497. Dias is allowed to accompany them, but only as far as the Cape Verde Islands - a mere hop for a navigator of his distinction. The Tordesillas Line: 1493-1500 When Columbus returns to Spain in 1493, with the first news of the West Indies, Ferdinand and Isabella are determined to ensure that these valuable discoveries belong to them rather than to seafaring Portugal. They secure from the Borgia pope, Alexander VI, a papal bull to the effect that all lands west of a certain line shall belong exclusively to Spain (in return for converting the heathen). All those to the east of the line shall belong on the same basis to Portugal.

The pope draws this line down through the Atlantic 100 leagues (300 miles) west of the Cape Verde islands , Portugal's most westerly possession. The king of Portugal, John II, protests that this trims him too tight. The line cramps the route which Portuguese sailors must take through the Atlantic before turning east round Africa. Spanish and Portuguese ambassadors, meeting in 1494 at Tordesillas in northwest Spain, resolve the dispute. They accept the principle of the line but agree to move it to a point 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde islands. The new line has a profound significance which no one as yet appreciates. It slices through the entire eastern part of south America from the mouth of the Amazon to São Paulo. The east coast of south America is first reached by Spanish and Portuguese navigators in the same year, 1500. The agreement at Tordesillas gives the territory to Portugal. Thus the vast area of Brazil, the largest territory of south America, becomes an exception in the subcontinent - the only part not to be in the Spanish empire, and the only modern country in Latin America with Portuguese rather than Spanish as its national language.

The Portuguese and India: 1497-1502 An important expedition to the east leaves Lisbon in 1497. In July Vasco da Gama sails south in his flagship, the St Gabriel, accompanied by three other vessels. In late November the little fleet rounds the Cape of Good Hope. Soon they are further up the east coast of Africa than Dias ventured ten years earler. In March they reach Mozambique. They are excited to find Arab vessels in the harbour, trading in gold, silver and spices, and to hear that Prester John is alive and well, living somewhere inland. In the well-established Portuguese tradition, da Gama has on board a good supply of stone pillars . He sets one up in each new territory, to claim it for his king. The real prize lies ahead, a dangerous journey away, across the Indian Ocean. At Malindi, on the coast of Kenya, a pilot is found who knows the route northeast to Calicut, an important trading centre in southern India. After twenty-three days Calicut is safely reached. Da Gama is welcomed by the local Hindu ruler, who must surely wonder why his guest is so keen to erect a stone pillar.

Da Gama spends three months in Calicut before sailing back to Africa. Adverse winds extend the crossing this time from three weeks to three months, and before the African coast is reached many of the crew die of scurvy -- a first glimpse of one of the problems of ocean travel. Da Gama arrives back in Lisbon in September 1499, more than two years after his departure. He is richly rewarded by the king, Manuel I, with honours, money and land. He has not managed to conclude a treaty with the ruler of Calicut. But he has proved that trade with the east by sea is possible. Manuel moves quickly to seize the opportunity. Six months later, in March 1500, the king sends Pedro Cabral on the same journey. He takes such a curving westerly route through the Atlantic that he chances upon the coast of Brazil (an accident with its own significant results). This time a warehouse is established in Calicut, but the Portuguese left there to run it are murdered. To avenge this act, da Gama is sent east again in 1502. He bombards Calicut from mortars aboard his ship.

With this clear evidence of Portuguese power a treaty becomes available. These events, east and west in India and Brazil , provide the basis of the Portuguese empire, with all its rich opportunities for future traders and missionaries . Portugal's eastern trade: 1508-1595 The profitable trade in eastern spices is cornered by the Portuguese in the 16th century to the detriment of Venice , which has previously had a virtual monopoly of these valuable commodities - until now brought overland through India and Arabia, and then across the Mediterranean by the Venetians for distribution in western Europe. By establishing the sea route round the Cape, Portugal can undercut the Venetian trade with its profusion of middlemen. The new route is firmly secured for Portugal by the activities of Afonso de Albuquerque, who takes up his duties as the Portuguese viceroy of India in 1508. The early explorers up the east Africa coast have left Portugal with bases in Mozambique and Zanzibar.

Albuquerque extends this secure route eastwards by capturing and fortifying Hormuz at the mouth of the Persian Gulf in 1514, Goa on the west coast of India in 1510 (where he massacres the entire Muslim population for the effrontery of resisting him) and Malacca, guarding the narrowest channel of the route east, in 1511. The island of Bombay is ceded to the Portuguese in 1534. An early Portuguese presence in Sri Lanka is steadily increased during the century. And in 1557 Portuguese merchants establish a colony on the island of Macao. Goa functions from the start as the capital of Portuguese India. Rivals in the overseas trade: 1555-1595 With this chain of fortified ports of call, and with no vessels in the Indian Ocean capable of challenging her power at sea, Portugal has a monopoly of the eastern spice trade. Indeed the English, now developing interests of their own in ocean commerce, consider that their only hope of trade with the far east is to find a route north of Russia.

One of the first joint-stock enterprises, the Muscovy Company chartered in 1555, results from early efforts to find a northeast passage . Of the other Atlantic maritime powers, Spain is mainly occupied with its American responsibilities. And the Dutch enjoy a direct benefit from Portugal's trade. Their ships have a monopoly in ferrying the precious eastern cargoes from Lisbon to northern Europe. The situation changes suddenly in 1580, when the Spanish (perennial enemies of the Dutch) occupy Portugal. Bartolomeu Dias - Exploration - HISTORY.com Bartolomeu Dias A+E Networks Introduction In 1488, Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias (c. 1450-1500) became the first European mariner to round the southern tip of Africa, opening the way for a sea route from Europe to Asia. Dias’ ships rounded the perilous Cape of Good Hope and then sailed around Africa’s southernmost point, Cabo das Agulhas, to enter the waters of the Indian Ocean.

Portugal and other European nations already had long-established trade ties to Asia, but the arduous overland route had been closed in the 1450s due to the Ottoman Empire’s conquest of the remnants of the Byzantine Empire. A major maritime victory for Portugal, Dias’ breakthrough opened the door to increased trade with India and other Asian powers. It also prompted Genoan explorer Christopher Columbus (1451-1506), then living in Portugal, to seek a new royal patron for a mission to establish his own sea route to the Far East. Google An Ambitious Plan Almost nothing is known about the life of Bartolomeu de Novaes Dias before 1487, except that he was at the court of João II, king of Portugal (1455-1495), and was a superintendent of the royal warehouses. He likely had much more sailing experience than his one recorded stint aboard the warship São Cristóvão. Dias was probably in his mid- to late 30s in 1486 when João appointed him to head an expedition in search of a sea route to India. Did You Know?

According to Greek historian Herodotus of Halicarnassus (c. 484-c. 425 B.C.), Egyptian pharaoh Necho II (d. 595 B.C.) sent Phoenician sailors out from the Arabian Gulf to sail around the African continent. Their journey took three years. João was entranced by the legend of Prester John, a mysterious and probably apocryphal 12th-century leader of a nation of Christians somewhere in Africa. João sent out a pair of explorers, Afonso de Paiva (c. 1460-c. 1490) and Pêro da Covilhã (c. 1450-c. 1526), to search overland for the Christian kingdom in Ethiopia. João also wanted to find a way around the southernmost point of Africa’s coastline, so just a few months after dispatching the overland explorers, he sponsored Dias in an African expedition. In August 1487, Dias’ trio of ships departed from the port of Lisbon, Portugal. Dias followed the route of 15th-century Portuguese explorer Diogo Cão (c. 1450-c.

1486), who had followed the coast of Africa as far as present-day Cape Cross, Namibia. Dias’ cargo included the standard “padrões,” the limestone markers used to stake Portuguese claims on the continent. Padrões were planted at the shoreline and served as guideposts to previous Portuguese explorations of the coast. Dias’ expedition party included six Africans who had been brought to Portugal by earlier explorers. Dias dropped off the Africans at different ports along the coastline of Africa with supplies of gold and silver and messages of goodwill from the Portuguese to the indigenous people. The last two Africans were left at a place the Portuguese sailors called Angra do Salto, probably in modern Angola, and the expedition’s supply ship was left there under guard of nine men. The Expedition Around South Africa In early January 1488, as Dias’ two ships sailed off the coast of South Africa, storms blew them away from the coast. Dias is thought to have ordered a turn to the south of about 28 degrees, probably because he had prior knowledge of southeasterly winds that would take him around the tip of Africa and keep his ships from being dashed on the notoriously rocky shoreline.

João and his predecessors had obtained navigational intelligence, including a 1460 map from Venice that showed the Indian Ocean on the other side of Africa. Dias’ decision was risky, but it worked. The crew spotted landfall on February 3, 1488, about 300 miles east of present-day Cape of Good Hope. They found a bay they called São Bras (present-day Mossel Bay) and the much warmer waters of the Indian Ocean. From the shoreline, indigenous Khoikhoi pelted Dias’ ships with stones until an arrow fired by either Dias or one of his men felled a tribesman. Dias ventured further along the coastline, but his crew was nervous about the dwindling food supplies and urged him to turn back. As mutiny loomed, Dias appointed a council to decide the matter. The members came to the agreement that they would permit him to sail another three days, then turn back. At Kwaaihoek, in present-day Eastern Cape province, they planted a padrão on March 12, 1488, which marked the easternmost point of Portuguese exploration.

On the journey back, Dias observed the southernmost point of Africa, later called Cabo das Agulhas, or Cape of Needles. Dias named the rocky second cape Cabo das Tormentas (Cape of Storms) for the tempestuous storms and strong Atlantic-Antarctic currents that made ship travel so perilous. Back in Angra do Salto, Dias and his crew were aghast to find that only three of the nine men left guarding the food ship had survived repeated attacks by locals; a seventh man died on the journey home. In Lisbon, after 15 months at sea and a journey of nearly 16,000 miles, the returning mariners were met by triumphant crowds. In a private meeting with the king, however, Dias was forced to explain his failure to meet up with Paiva and Covilhã. Despite his immense achievement, Dias was never again put in a position of authority. João ordered that henceforth, maps would show the new name for Cabo das Tormentas–Cabo da Boa Esperança, or Cape of Good Hope.

Advisor to Vasco da Gama Following his expedition, Dias settled for a time in Guinea in West Africa, where Portugal had established a gold-trading site. João’s successor, Manuel I (1469-1521), ordered Dias to serve as a shipbuilding consultant for the expedition of Vasco da Gama (c. 1460-1524). Dias sailed with the da Gama expedition as far as the Cape Verde Islands, then returned to Guinea. Da Gama’s ships reached their goal of India in May 1498, nearly a decade after Dias’ historic trip around the tip of Africa. Afterward, Manuel sent out a massive fleet to India under Pedro Álvares Cabral (c. 1467-c. 1520), and Dias captained four of the ships. They reached Brazil in March 1500, then headed across the Atlantic toward South Africa and, further ahead, the Indian subcontinent. At the feared Cabo das Tormentas, storms struck the fleet of 13 ships. In May 1500, four of the ships were wrecked, including Dias’, with all crew lost at sea.

Tags Bartholomeu Dias | South African History Online South African History Online Posted by Anonymous (not verified) on People category: Portuguese navigator discovered the Cape of Good Hope in 1488 and maritime explorer First name: 24 May 1500 Lives of Courage Bartholomeu Dias, also called Bartholomew Diaz, was a Portuguese navigator whose discovery in 1488 of the Cape of Good Hope showed Europeans there was a feasible route to India around the storm-driven southern tip of Africa. He also discovered for Europe the south-east trade winds and the westerlies to the west and south of South Africa, thus establishing the wind system for those who sailed after him. King João II of Portugal financed Dias’s expedition. Dias took part in Cabral's expedition that discovered Brazil, but Dias’s ship sank during a storm. It is very unlikely that Dias was, in fact, the first mariner to round the Cape. The great merchant traders of antiquity Â¾ the Phoenicians, Egyptians, Greeks, Arabs, Chinese and Indians ”” all made journeys down the west and east African coasts, and one expedition went right around the continent.

Nevertheless, the voyage of Dias was fraught with consequences, for at the time the search for a passage to the Indies was a move in the great struggle between the Moslem world and Christendom. The epoch-making voyage of Dias not only opened up the sea route to the Indies; it paved the way for contact between Europe, Africa, and the East, greatly extending the Portuguese sphere of influence. Early information about Dias's voyage is limited because all the actual records of his voyage perished when the castle of São Jorge, in which they were housed, burnt down after the Lisbon earthquake of 1755. However, historians have reconstructed story from chronicles written in the sixteenth century, from near-contemporary maps, and from the stone pillars or padroes which the explorers raised on headlands along the African coast during their voyages, and from old rutters (sailing instructions). The route-book of Duarte Pacheco Pereira has been particularly useful. Pereira wrote the Esmeraldo de Sito Orbis, in which he records his own adventures on the Guinea coast. He wrote from direct experience because Dias rescued him in 1488 on his return voyage after the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope.

Dias's squadron of three ships departed from the River Tagus below Lisbon in August 1487. The name of the flagship has not survived, but we do know that Dias’s pilot was Pero de Alenquer. The second caravel was the São Pantaleao, commanded by João Infante and piloted by Alvaro Martins. Diogo Dias, Bartolomeu’s brother, commanded the storeship, a square-rigger. Her pilot was João de Santiago, who had previously accompanied Diogo Cão up the Congo River. (See Cão, D.) They also carried with them six African hostages who had been taken to Portugal earlier, some by Diogo Cão. They were to be landed at various places on the coast to praise the greatness of the Portuguese and to explain to local chiefs that the Portuguese king wished to establish friendly relations and make contact with Prester John, the legendary Christian king of Ethiopia. The Portuguese king wished them to know that they were seeking a way to India in order to trade. To replenish provisions before voyaging beyond the Congo, the squadron called at São Jorge de Mina, the Portuguese fortress on the Gold Coast.

They touched on the barren Namibian coast in December, and on the coast of Angola, they transferred provisions and supplies from the storeship and left it at anchor with a caretaker crew of nine men. Beyond Cape Cross, they sailed close to the coast. It is thought that they reached Golfo da Conceicão (Walvis Bay) on 8 December, where it is likely that they anchored. Sailing southward along the Namaqualand coast, they named the Gulf of St Thomas (Spencer Bay) and the Angra das Voltas (Luderitz). Continuing along an inhospitable coast, they sailed into Golfo de Santo Estevão (Elizabeth Bay). On 6 January, Dias named a range of mountains Serra dos Reis (the northern Cedarberg). Beyond this point, tradition has it that they encountered adverse winds. Beating on for some days without sighting land, they unwittingly rounded the Cape of Good Hope in late January 1488. While coasting along the southern shores, they came to the Gourits estuary where they saw Khoikhoi tending their wide-horned cattle.

They named this river, Rio dos Vacqueiros (River of the Cowherds). Much worn by wind and weather, in early February 1488 they pressed on eastwards along the coast and, realizing they must have rounded the continent of Africa, they anchored in a broad bay to replenish their water casks. They named this bay Golfo de São Bras (Mossel Bay). Here, the local inhabitants accepted their trinkets and the sailors were able to buy by barter cattle and sheep. But the Khoikhoi later grew distrustful of the interlopers and attacked them. Snatching up a crossbow, Dias shot one of them dead causing the people to flee in terror. The sailors immediately withdrew to their ships, and the expedition sailed on eastward as far as Bahia da Roca (Algoa Bay) where they anchored in the lee of the largest of three rocky islets crowded with sea birds and sea-lions. On the summit, they raised a wooden cross and celebrated mass. They named the islet ilhéu da Cruz.

A few days after leaving Algoa Bay, they came to a river mouth, which Dias called Rio de Infante after João Infante, the captain of the second ship. Here, his men compelled him to return them to Portugal because they were exhausted and frightened and their provisions were running out. Historians first assumed his turning point to be the mouth of the Great Fish, but it is now thought to have been the Keiskamma River at Hamburg, 50 km south-west of East London. On 12 March 1488, a little west of Bushman's River mouth, they dropped anchor at a headland, formerly called False Islet, now known as Kwaaihoek. Here, Dias erected his farthest stone pillar, the padrão de São Gregorio and then resumed his homeward journey. Eric Axelson excavated fragments of this padrão in 1938. Again, Dias's caravels sailed into Algoa Bay. They anchored at Struisbaai Bay on 23 April, naming it Aguada de San Jorgy. They probably stayed here for some time renewing their supplies of fresh food.

They saw Cape Agulhas on 16 May, but were unaware that this unimpressive point was the southern extremity of Africa, as all later maps indicate the Cape of Good Hope as being the tip of the continent. The caravels then sailed into Walker Bay, beyond which lies modern Hermanus. Sailing on past a backdrop of mountain ranges, they rounded Cape Hangklip, and entering False Bay, naming it Golfo dentro das Serras (the bay between the mountains). Dias sailed for some days in False Bay and it is very likely that he saw Table Mountain from here, as the side of the mountain is clearly seen fro this position. On 6 June, Dias erected a second padrão somewhere on the Cape Peninsula. Legend has it, Dias called Cabo Tormentosa ””Cape of Storms ””, and the Portuguese king supposedly renamed it Cabo da Boa Esperanca.

Professor Axelson scotches this with reference to Pacheco Pereira's statement: It was not without good reason that this promontory received the name Cabo da Boa Esperanca because Bartolomeu Dias, who discovered it at the command of the late King João in the year 1488, saw that the coast here turned northwards and north-eastwards towards Ethiopia-under-Egypt and on to the gulf of Arabia, which gave indication and expectation of the discovery of India, and for this reason gave it the name of Cabo da Boa Esperanca. Moreover, a note in a book of Christopher Columbus records that Dias gave an account to King João of how he navigated `to the promontory called by him Cabo da Boa Esperanca'. (Axelson, 1972: 149). Dias's chroniclers record that a padrão dedicated to São Filipe was placed on a prominence of the Cape of Good Hope on 6 June 1488 (Saint Philip's Day). But no trace of it has ever been found. From the Cape of Good Hope, Dias sailed northward.

On St Christopher's Day, 34 July, he rejoined the storeship they had left behind at Luderitz Bay. Of the nine men who had remained, six had been killed in attacks by Khoikhoi hostile to their presence, and the three survivors were so weak that the purser, Fernão Colaco, apparently died with joy at the sight of the returning ships. After setting fire to the store-ship, Dias erected his last padrão to the west of the bay that he called Golfo de São Cristovão. By the 1820s, the limestone pillar had been overthrown. Professor Axelson identified the original site on the foghorn knoll in 1953 and he recovered many fragments of the padrão at the foot of the hill and in the adjacent channel and shallows. Dias probably put in at the mouth of the Congo. He certainly anchored at Principe Island in the Gulf of Guinea, where he rescued Pacheco Pereira and the survivors of an expedition, which had been sent to explore the waterways entering the Bight of Biafra.

These explorers had fallen ill with fever and had lost their vessel after a fruitless search for a navigable route to the land of Prester John. Dias dropped anchor at the river Tagus in December 1488 after a voyage of sixteen months and seventeen days, and having discovered 350 leagues of coastline unknown to Europeans. According to Christopher Columbus, who said he was present at the time, Dias sketched and wrote in a chart for the king, league by league, the voyage he had just completed. This chart has since vanished. In the same decade that Dias had reached the Cape of Good Hope, Christopher Columbus had sailed across the Atlantic, also looking for a sea route to the Indies. To settle conflicts between Spain and Portugal arising out of Columbus's first voyage, Pope Alexander VI drew up the Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494 to demarcate the boundaries of the spheres of influence of the Spanish and Portuguese kings. Nine years were to elapse before the next Portuguese fleet under Vasco da Gama sailed around Africa in search of India. During that time, João II died (1495) and was succeeded by his cousin and brother-in-law, Manuel, who took a keen interest in exploration.

Dias accompanied Da Gama's fleet as far as the Cape Verde islands where he left it to command the fort at Mina. Dias gained experience in trading at Mina and brought back with him a cargo of gold and slaves, which were sold to provide finances for further expeditions. When Da Gama returned to Portugal in 1499 with news about the extent of Muslim gold trading on the east African coast, King Manuel became determined to send a strong armada to take advantage of these discoveries. The fleet, under the command of Admiral Pedro Alvares Cabral, included a squadron of four caravels under Dias, who had been selected to found a fortress-factory at the gold-exporting port of Sofala on the east coast. On 9 March 1500, the armada set out on the Atlantic and turned south-westward to take advantage of the south-east trade winds. Cabral may well have been secretly instructed to explore the western area allotted to Portugal under the Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494. Sailing westward, the fleet came upon the bulge of South America. Dias thus became an active participant in the first discovery of Brazil.

In order to test the mood of the local inhabitants Dias was ordered to land a longboat at an anchorage they named Porto Seguro (the present Baia Cabralia). As the natives proved friendly and attractive, the Portuguese went ashore and danced and made merry with them, visited their village, and afterwards celebrated mass on the beach. Cabral and his fleet sailed from Brazil on 2 May 1500. On 24 May, while re-crossing the South Atlantic, a cyclone suddenly overwhelmed the fleet. Four ships were swallowed up, including the caravel of Bartolomeu Dias. Cabral secures the sea route to India for Portugal. Cabral eventually found himself off Sofala with only six battered ships, all stripped of sail. Realizing it was now impossible to establish a fortress at Sofala, he pressed on to Cochin and other ports where he traded for spices and formed alliances with the local rajas, finally securing the Portuguese sea route to India that Dias had done so much to establish. Note: Cape of Good Hope, South Africa.

The Most South-Western Point of The African Continent | 360° Aerial Panoramas, 360° Virtual Tours Around the World, Photos of the Most Interesting Places on the Earth Photogallery Total Views: 1 152 135 The discovery of Cape of Good Hope — a geographic location with one of the most romantic names in the world — is due to Portuguese navigator Bartolomeu Dias. At the end of the 15th century Portugal was literally obsessed with discovering the seaway to India sending one expedition after another. In 1487 this task was entrusted to Dias. His voyage, as well as his predecessors', was filled with adventures, shooting incidents with local tribes, and threats of mutiny from his crew. Dias ended up sailing only around Africa thinking that if one continues to sail forward, he would arrive to India sooner or later. After coming to this logical conclusion he turned around, and on his way home in May of 1488 he landed at what he thought was the southernmost point of Africa. The debarkation was not easy — the storm almost wrecked their ship on the cliffs.

As a result, Dias named this place "Cape of Storms" and returned to Portugal with peace of mind. But the King Juan the Second thought that the name was too shortsighted: who would want to discover India through such obstacles? So he changed the name to the Cape of Good Hope envisioning that the sea route to India would be well travelled one day. The expedition, led by famous Vasco da Gama, became a success. By the way, he owes his fame to this voyage as it made him the first European who sailed to India. On July 8th, year 1497 the expedition made a grand exit out of the Port of Lisbon and by November of the same year sailed around the Cape of Storms, or to be precise, the Cape of Good Hope. Needless to say that the storms continuing for days and days made it very difficult and caused a damage beyond repair to one of the vessels... However, the heroic deeds of the explorers were not in vain, as now humanity possesses not only the sea route from Europe to India but also an outstanding tourist "attraction".

Who wouldn't want to boast about standing on the most southern point of the African continent gazing at the vastness of the ocean and knowing that the only closest land is Antarctica? Centuries later, with the development of cartography, it became clear that "the southernmost point in the continent of Africa" was not the Cape of Good Hope but the Cape Agulhas located 155 km southeast. However, by that time, tourists already made their way to the "imposter" discovered by Bartolomeu Dias so the government decided to simply change the plate to read "The Most South-Western Point of The African Continent" :) Even this change didn't go without a trick! After arriving to Cape of Good Hope by bus tourists first ride the cable cars, then take a long walk to a high, beautiful, long stretching outbound cape with a panoramic view of the mirror-like ocean, where they take classic photos in "Me and The Most South-Western Point of Africa" style. However this cape, named Cape Point, is not really the most southwestern one.

The real most southwestern point of the African continent is actually situated several kilometers away — it's an unremarkable place by the water, with a small parking lot nearby and an official plate that reads "The Most South-Western Point of The African Continent" (see photo below). This location is hardly known and is visited by less than 10% of all tourists that come to the Cape of Good Hope :) Visitor of our website has pointed that the official sign says wrong latitude (23 degrees instead of 33). Photo above with wrong sign was taken in 2003. We found photo in the web of this sign of 2006, there you can see that wrong coordinates have already been fixed. BBC - History - British History in depth: Vasco da Gama Print this page The search for trade routes Vasco da Gama's pioneering sea voyage to India is one of the defining moments in the history of exploration. Apart from being one the greatest pieces of European seamanship of that time - a far greater achievement than Christopher Columbus's crossing of the Atlantic - his journey acted as a catalyst for a series of events that changed the world.

By the middle of the 15th century, Portugal was the leading maritime nation in Europe, thanks largely to the legacy of Prince Henry the Navigator, who had brought together a talented group of mapmakers, geographers, astronomers and navigators at his school of seamanship at Sagres, in southern Portugal. Henry sponsored voyages of exploration south along the west African coast... but the southern extent of the continent remained unknown to Europeans. Henry's intention had been to find a sea route to India that would give Portugal access to the lucrative trade in spices from the Far East. He had hoped to be aided by an alliance with the elusive Prester John, whose Christian empire was thought to exist somewhere in Africa and who might have provided assistance to Christians in any fight to overcome Muslim dominance of the Indian Ocean trade. For 40 years, Henry sponsored voyages of exploration south along the west African coast, resulting in a lucrative trade in slaves and gold - but the southern extent of the continent remained unknown to Europeans, and the Prince's dream was not realised. It was not until 1487 that Bartholomew Diaz set off on the voyage that finally reached the southern tip of Africa.

By rounding the Cape of Good Hope, Diaz proved that the Atlantic and Indian Oceans were not landlocked, as many European geographers of the time thought, and rekindled the idea that a sea route to India might indeed be feasible. To complement the sea voyages of Diaz, the Portuguese monarch King John II also sent Pedro da Covilha, a fluent Arabic speaker, out on a dangerous overland journey to India. Disguised as an Arab, Covilha gathered vital information on the ports of the east African and Indian coasts during his three-year journey. It would, however, be a further ten years before the Portuguese were able to organise a voyage to exploit the discoveries of these two explorers. In the meantime, Christopher Columbus, sponsored by the Spanish, had returned to Europe in 1493 to announce that he had successfully found a route to the Orient by sailing west across the Atlantic. Top Rivalries A 16th-century Portuguese ship used in the Indian Ocean trade routes © The rivalry between Portugal and Spain for the control of trade with the Orient intensified. The Pope stepped in to arbitrate and in 1494, after year-long negotiations, the Treaty of Tordesillas was signed.

This in effect drew an imaginary north-south dividing line through the Atlantic, some 1,770km (1,100 miles) west of Cape Verde, giving all the newly discovered lands to the west of the line to Spain and everything to the east of the line to Portugal. King John was delighted. The treaty meant that Portugal retained its control of the west African coastal trade and of the possible sea route to India. In 1497 King John's successor, Manuel I, appointed Vasco da Gama to lead a pioneering voyage to India. In 1497 King John's successor, Manuel I, appointed Vasco da Gama to lead a pioneering voyage to India. Vasco da Gama was born in Sines, a small port in southern Portugal, in 1460 - the same year that Henry the Navigator died. His mother was of English ancestry. His father, Estevao da Gama, was head of one of Portugal's most noble families, had a distinguished military history, and was the provincial governor. When Vasco grew up he joined the navy, where he learned navigational skills and served with distinction in the war against Castille.

Bartholomew Diaz personally supervised preparations for da Gama's voyage. The ordinary caravel used by Diaz was not considered sufficient - it was not robust enough, and had insufficient cargo capacity. The crew would also need better protection for the long journey ahead. The fleet consisted of four ships, two of which had been specially constructed. These were naos: square-rigged ships of shallow draught weighing about 200 tons. The flagship, St Gabriel, was captained by Vasco da Gama, and the St Raphael was under the command of his brother Paolo da Gama. Berrio Nicolau Coelho commanded a lanteen-rigged caravel of about 100 tons, and the fourth ship was a store ship. The crew of 170 included three experienced pilots: Pedro de Alemquer, the pilot who had sailed with Diaz in 1487, Joao de Coimbra and Pero de Escolar. Top The first voyage to India Vasco da Gama and his fleet sailed from Lisbon on 8 July 1497.

Bartholomew Diaz himself acted as pilot to the Canary Islands, which they reached on 15 July, and on to the Cape Verde islands. On board were the latest maps and navigational instruments. Between 26 July and 3 August the crew prepared for the next stage of their voyage without Diaz, who advised them to take an unusual course: west-south west in a huge loop out into the Atlantic to avoid the doldrums in the Gulf of Guinea. They were 965km (600 miles) from Brazil before the south-westerly winds blew them back towards southern Africa. Vaco da Gama's passage to India © On 7 November they landed at St Helena Bay, 200km (125 miles) north of the Cape of Good Hope. They had been out of sight of land for 13 weeks - much longer than Columbus on his trans-Atlantic voyage - and had travelled a distance of more than 7,200km (4,500 miles) from Cape Verde. They would now be sailing in unknown waters, having almost reached the farthest extent of Diaz's explorations.

Two days later, after leaving St Helena Bay, they rounded the Cape of Good Hope and landed at Mossel Bay, where they traded trinkets with local people in exchange for an ox. The store ship was burnt, and the supplies re-distributed among the other ships. They would now be sailing in unknown waters, having almost reached the farthest extent of Diaz's explorations. On Christmas Day 1497 the three remaining ships were sailing northwards along the east coast of what is now South Africa and called the country 'Natal'. By 11 January 1498 they were exploring the mouth of Copper River ('Rio Cobre'), named after the copper ornaments worn by the local population. When da Gama tried to trade with the ruling Sultan, his paltry gifts were scorned. Moving slowly north east against a strong south-westerly current, they travelled 2,700km (1,700 miles) up the coast until, on 2 March 1498, they sailed into the port of Mozambique. This was one of a chain of Muslim city states, at the southernmost point of Muslim influence on the east African coast.

When da Gama tried to trade with the ruling Sultan his paltry gifts were scorned. Despite sparing no expense to equip the expedition, the Portuguese had totally underestimated the quality of goods being traded in this part of the world - cotton, ivory, gold and pearls. They sailed on to Mombassa, 1,300km (800 miles) north, in the hope of more lucrative trade, but fared no better there. Fortunately the ruler of Malindi was more welcoming, and during his stay there da Gama recruited a knowledgeable and efficient pilot, possibly the great Arab navigator Ahmed Ibn Majid, to show the explorers the route to India. Top Da Gama reaches India Da Gama tried to trade spices for trinkets © The 27-day crossing of the Arabian sea, via the Laccadive Islands to the Malabar Coast of India, was eased by the favourable monsoon winds, and the fleet arrived at Calicut on 20 May 1498. Da Gama's men were reduced to bartering on the waterfront to trade what goods they could for the homeward voyage.

India's Malabar Coast was at the centre of the spice trade - it was the main outlet for Kerala's large pepper crop - and the place where ships from the Indonesian Spice Islands came to trade cloves with Arab merchants from the Red Sea and Persian Gulf. The newcomers stayed for three months, and were initially well received by the Hindu ruler, the Zamorin. But the Muslim traders also held considerable influence at court, and were unwilling to relinquish control of the spice trade to the Christian visitors - and once again the goods da Gama was offering to trade were inadequate. Relations deteriorated, and da Gama's men were reduced to bartering on the waterfront to trade what goods they could for the homeward voyage. It was a terrible voyage back to Malindi. The pilot could not be found, the monsoons were against them and the 3,700km (2,300 mile) journey took three months. Da Gama's crew suffered terribly from scurvy and 30 men died. Only the kindness of the Sultan of Malindi saved the rest of the crew, with his gifts of fresh meat and oranges. But now, with too few men alive to sail three ships, the St Raphael was burnt.

Keen to get home, the adventurers rounded the Cape of Good Hope on 20 March 1499, and sailed up the west coast of Africa. Paolo da Gama, who had been very compassionate to the sick and ailing throughout the voyage, finally succumbed to illness himself, and died on the Azores. Top Secondary voyages to India Vasco da Gama arrived in Lisbon on 18 September and rode in triumph through the city. He had been away for more than two years, travelled 38,600km (24,000 miles) and spent 300 days at sea. Only 54 of the original crew of 170 had survived, but King Manuel was very pleased. What had been done once could be done again. The Muslim merchants were outraged at the attempt to steal their trade, and killed 50 of Cabral's men. A second voyage, involving 13 ships and 1,200 men, was immediately dispatched under Pedro Alvares Cabral to secure the sea route to India, and the fleet reached Calicut in under six months.

This time the Portuguese were better prepared and brought lavish goods with which to tempt the Zamorin into a trade agreement. The Muslim merchants were outraged at this attempt to steal their trade, and killed 50 of Cabral's men. Cabral retaliated by burning ten Muslim cargo vessels and killing nearly 600 on board, and setting light to the wooden houses of Calicut in revenge. He then moved on to Cochin, where he established the first Portuguese trading post in India. He returned home in the summer of 1501. Only seven ships and half his men survived the journey, but their cargo of spices was sufficient to break the monopoly on the European spice trade previously held by Arab and Venetian merchants. The following year, Vasco da Gama commanded Portugal's third major voyage to India. He set out with a fleet of 20 ships, including ten of his own and five each under the command of his uncle and nephew. Their task was to consolidate Portuguese dominance of the route to India, but it was to lead to one of the worst maritime massacres in history. Da Gama began a campaign of terror against Muslim shipping...

After raids on several Muslim ports along the east African coast, da Gama began a campaign of terror against Muslim shipping off the Malabar Coast. Here he captured the Meri, a ship with 200 Muslim pilgrims on the return journey from Mecca, and set it alight. With some 400 men, women and children aboard, da Gama fuelled the fires for four days until all had died. He then moved on to Calicut, where he captured and dismembered 30 fishermen and let their bodies float in with the tide for their families to find. Feared and hated, he left behind the first European naval force in Asian waters. Upon his return home in September 1503, da Gama was richly rewarded by the Portuguese for his efforts and was eventually appointed Viceroy of India.

Manas: History and Politics, Mughals in south-west India on 27 May 1498 inaugurated a new, and extremely unpleasant, chapter in Indian history.� For some time, the Portuguese, among other Europeans, had been looking for a sea route to India , but they had been unable to break free of the stranglehold exercised by Egyptian rulers over the trade between Europe and Asia .� The Red Sea trade route was a state monopoly from which Islamic rulers earned tremendous revenues.� In the fifteenth century, the mantle of Christendom�s resistance to Islam had fallen upon Portugal ; moreover, the Portuguese had inherited the Genoese tradition of exploration.� It is reported that the idea of finding an ocean route to Ocean had become an obsession for Henry the Navigator (1394-1460), and he was also keen to find a way to circumvent the Muslim domination of the eastern Mediterranean and all the routes that connected India to Europe .� In 1454, Henry received a bull from Pope Nicholas V, which conferred on him the right to navigate the �sea to the distant shores of the Orient�, more specifically �as far as India �, whose inhabitants were to be brought to help Christians �against the

 enemies of the faith�.� The pagans, wherever they might be, �not yet afflicted with the plague of Islam� were to be given the �knowledge of the name of Christ.�� By the terms of the Treaty of Trodesilhas (1494), all new territories were divided between Spain .�� The stage was thus set for the Portuguese incursions into the waters surrounding India .

In 1487, the Portuguese navigator, Bartholomew Dias, rounded the �Cape of Good Hope�, and so opened the sea route to India .� An expedition of four ships headed out to India in 1497, and arrived in India � in slightly less than eleven months� time.� The coming of the Portuguese introduced several new factors into Indian history.� As almost every historian has observed, it not only initiated what might be called the European era, it marked the emergence of naval power.� Doubtless, the Cholas, among others, had been a naval power, but for the first time a foreign power had come to India by way of the sea; moreover, Portuguese dominance would only extend to the coasts, since they were never able to make any significant inroads into the Indian interior.� The Portuguese ships carried cannon, but the significance of this is not commonly realized, especially by those who are merely inclined to view the Portuguese as one of a series of invaders of India, or even as specimens of �enterprising� Europeans whose mission it was to energize the �lazy natives�.� For centuries, the numerous participants in the Indian Ocean trading system � Indians, Arabs, Africans from the east coast, Chinese, J

avanese, Sumatrans, among others � had ploughed the sea routes and adhered to various tacit rules of conduct.� Though all were in the trade for profit, as might be expected, no party sought to have overwhelming dominance; certainly no one had sought to enforce their power through arms.� Trade flourished, and all the parties played their role in putting down piracy:� this was a free trade zone.� Into this� arena stepped forth the Portuguese, who at once declared their intention to abide by no rules except their own, and who sought immediate and decisive advantage over the Indians and over the Indian Ocean In a word, the conduct of the Portuguese in India was �barbaric�.� Vasco da Gama�s initial conduct set the tone.� On his way to India , he encountered an unarmed vessel returning from Mecca ; as a contemporary Portuguese source states, da Gama ordered the ship emptied of its goods, and then had it set on fire, prohibiting �any Moor� being taken from it alive.� He then spent four months in India .� Having waited out the monsoons, he set out to return to Portugal with a cargo worth sixty times what he had brought with him, and refused to pay the customary port duties to the Zam

orin, the ruler of Calicut .� To ensure that his way would not be obstructed, he took a few hostages with him.� When he returned to Portugal in 1499, the pepper he brought with him was sold at an enormous profit; and nothing underscores the importance of direct access to the pepper trade as much as the fact that elsewhere the Europeans, who relied on Muslim middlemen, would have to spend ten times as much for the same amount of pepper.� Emboldened by this success, King Dom Manuel sent another expedition of six ships headed by Pedro Cabral.� With their usual ignorance of, and disdain for, local customs, Cabral and the Portuguese sent a low-caste Hindu as a messenger to the Zamorin upon their arrival at port.� Meanwhile, as the historian K.

M. Panikkar has written, the Portuguese were claiming the sole right to the sea; in the words of Barroes, �It is true that there does exist a common right to all to navigate the seas and in Europe we acknowledge the rights which others hold against us; but this right does not extend beyond Europe; and therefore the Portuguese as Lords of the Sea are justified in confiscating the goods of all those navigate the seas without their permission� (p. 41).� Cabral attacked all Arab vessels within his reach, which provoked a riot at the port that led to the destruction of the Portuguese factory.� Cabral retaliated in the only way known to a Portuguese marauder and bandit of his times:� he massacred the crews of the boats, and burnt all the ships that were not his own.� The intent, which would be repeatedly witnessed in the history of Portuguese interactions with the Indians (and with others), was to brutalize and terrorize the native population, and Panikkar remarks, with evident justice, that Cabral�s behavior persuaded the Indians that �the intruders were uncivilised barbarians, treacherous and untrustworthy� (p. 42). Quotations are extracted from K.

M. Panikkar, Malabar and the Portuguese:� Being a History of the Relations of the Portuguese with Malabar from 1500 to 1663 (Bombay:� D. B. Taraporevala, 1929). Vasco da Gama - Exploration - HISTORY.com Vasco da Gama A+E Networks Introduction The Portuguese nobleman Vasco da Gama (1460-1524) sailed from Lisbon in 1497 on a mission to reach India and open a sea route from Europe to the East. After sailing down the western coast of Africa and rounding the Cape of Good Hope, his expedition made numerous stops in Africa before reaching the trading post of Calicut, India, in May 1498. Da Gama received a hero’s welcome back in Portugal, and was sent on a second expedition to India in 1502, during which he brutally clashed with Muslim traders in the region. Two decades later, da Gama again returned to India, this time as Portuguese viceroy; he died there of an illness in late 1524.

Google Vasco da Gama’s Early Life and First Voyage to India Born circa 1460, Vasco da Gama was the son of a minor nobleman who commanded the fortress at Sines, located on the coast of the Alentejo province in southwestern Portugal. Little else is known about his early life, but in 1492 King John II sent da Gama to the port city of Setubal (south of Lisbon) and to the Algarve region to seize French ships in retaliation for French attacks on Portuguese shipping interests. Did You Know? By the time Vasco da Gama returned from his first voyage to India in 1499, he had spent more than two years away from home, including 300 days at sea, and had traveled some 24,000 miles. Only 54 of his original crew of 170 men returned with him; the majority (including da Gama's brother Paolo) had died of illnesses such as scurvy.

In 1497, John’s successor, King Manuel I (crowned in 1495), chose da Gama to lead a Portuguese fleet to India in search of a maritime route from Western Europe to the East. At the time, the Muslims held a monopoly of trade with India and other Eastern nations, thanks to their geographical position. Da Gama sailed from Lisbon that July with four vessels, traveling south along the coast of Africa before veering far off into the southern Atlantic in order to avoid unfavorable currents. The fleet was finally able to round the Cape of Good Hope at Africa’s southern tip in late November, and headed north along Africa’s eastern coast, making stops at what is now Mozambique, Mombasa and Malindi (both now in Kenya). With the help of a local navigator, da Gama was able to cross the Indian Ocean and reach the coast of India at Calicut (now Kozhikode) in May 1498. Relations with Local Population & Rival Traders Though the local Hindu population of Calicut initially welcomed the arrival of the Portuguese sailors (who mistook them for Christians), tensions quickly flared after da Gama offered their ruler a collection of relatively cheap goods as an arrival gift.

This conflict, along with hostility from Muslim traders, led Da Gama to leave without concluding a treaty and return to Portugal. A much larger fleet, commanded by Pedro Alvares Cabral, was dispatched to capitalize on da Gama’s discoveries and secure a trading post at Calicut. After Muslim traders killed 50 of his men, Cabral retaliated by burning 10 Muslim cargo vessels and killing the nearly 600 sailors aboard. He then moved on to Cochin, where he established the first Portuguese trading post in India. In 1502, King Manuel put da Gama in charge of another Indian expedition, which sailed that February. On this voyage, da Gama attacked Arab shipping interests in the region and used force to reach an agreement with Calicut’s ruler. For these brutal demonstrations of power, da Gama was vilified throughout India and the region. Upon his return to Portugal, by contrast, he was richly rewarded for another successful voyage. Da Gama’s Later Life and Last Voyage to India Da Gama had married a well-born woman sometime after returning from his first voyage to India; the couple would have six sons.

For the next 20 years, da Gama continued to advise the Portuguese ruler on Indian affairs, but he was not sent back to the region until 1524, when King John III appointed him as Portuguese viceroy in India. Da Gama arrived in Goa with the task of combating the growing corruption that had tainted the Portuguese government in India. He soon fell ill, and in December 1524 he died in Cochin. His body was later taken back to Portugal for burial there. Tags

Question: Which 15th-century navigator discovered the sea route from Europe to India by the Cape of Good Hope?
Answer: Vasco da Gama